Crossing the border with Blue Jays beat reporter Jordan Bastian.

Romero and Ryan to DL

The Jays placed closer B.J. Ryan and rookie lefty Ricky Romero on the 15-day disabled list today. Ryan is out with tightness in his left trapezius muscle and Romero has a right oblique strain.

In Ryan’s case, GM J.P. Ricciardi said he only learned of the injury a couple days ago and manager Cito Gaston said he didn’t hear about it until after Wednesday’s game. Both Ricciardi and Gaston said they didn’t know if the injury dates back to the spring.

“They said trapeze — I thought it was a circus act,” Ricciardi said with a laugh.

One reporter quickly quipped: “Some might argue it is.”

No word on who the callups will be to replace Ryan and Romero on the roster. Brian Wolfe and Jeremy Accardo appear to be the likely bullpen candidates. For Saturday’s start, it looks like it might be lefty Brian Burres.

Romero said he’s felt some discomfort in his side for a few outings and he told the club about it after his start in Minnesota. He said he first felt pain after sneezing before that appearance. Brought back memories of when Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa threw his back out with a sneeze.

Ricciardi said Romero will likely be out until the middle of May, when the Jays also hope to have Jesse Litsch and Casey Janssen back in the mix. At that point, it’s possible that — if the starters are performing well — Janssen could be headed back to the bullpen.

More info on both of these injuries will be on bluejays.com later. I’m adding more detail to the quick news story that’s currently online.

Related

28 Comments

Wow, this isn’t good. “I’ll always remember how we got off to such a great start in 2009 before we started losing the few pitchers we had left.” Man, the bats are going to have to REALLY go to work now. Ryan was struggling, but Romero has been special – there’s a loss!

Tough news about Romero. In the case of Ryan I am glad that he wont be closing for a bit. Not saying that i’m happy he’s hurt but just that he wont be playing for a bit because he has looked awful so far this year. Hopefully he can back a lot better.

I know injuries are part of the game but when will this team get a break . This makes it 6 pitchers out , Marcum , McGowan, Litsch, Janssen, Romero and Ryan . Other teams lose 1 and moan about it . Jays have dealt with this for the last few years , its crazy . Lets hope a few can return soon. Hopefully Accardo is doing well and can come back up

I just checked out the AAA pitchers hmmmm…Paul Byrd is looking to return , maybe JP should look at acquiring him . He can’t be any worse than the options we have in the minors. Jays really need to look into their conditioning program

It looks to me that Richmond’s problem with left hand batters is over as a result of that real nice change up he’s mastering which breaks down and away from lefties.
He’s been over matching right handers since he came up but this new pitch keeps left handers off balance.
Although, as a rookie, I still expect him to have both good and bad games, I don’t expect left handers to drill him anymore like they have in the past, which is really good news for the Jays.

Richmond is now 2-0, The only one better than him is Doc so far this year.
Downs did a great job tonight as did Carlson, Camp, and League.
Good to see Rios swinging the bat as well as Wells.
Overbay is starting to look like he did in 06.
—GO JAYS GO—

Before the season started i was saying 85. Thanks to there hot start my guess is now 90-94. The Jays are very fun to watch this year. It will be interesting to see how or rotation handles itself in Fenway on Yankee stadium.

JB reported ( on twitter) the Jays are calling up Brian Bullington, a right hand reliever from Las Vegas to fill the roster sport left open by Ryan. Bullington’s gone 9.2 innings in 4 outings, given up 10 hits, 1 bb, 2 earned runs and struck out 10 for an era of 1.86.

For the starter, it certainly won’t be Cecil who had another rough outing tonight in Vegas-his 3rd in a row and it won’t be Mills who went yesterday. JB reports that Brian Burres, a lefty from Vegas is the current rumor, but it doesn’t appear any call up has been done yet.

Obviously, I do not know how many games the Jays will win this year. However, I hope that it is enough for Cito to win manager of the year. Although his managerial style is, at times, unorthodox, it works. Moreover, I believe that Cito is a real gentleman — unfortunately, all to often a rarity these days!

Well, the last 2 teams to win their first 5 series each went on to win 100+ games. The good news is that they are on a pace to win 114 games, and they are pounding the bejabbers out of other people’s bullpens, just like the 92-93 teams did. More sobering is the fact that, while they have beaten the teams that they should have beaten, they have yet to play any really good teams. How many games will they win? Ask me at the end of June.
In the meanwhile, I have waited 15 years for this, and I am going to enjoy every minute of it!

I don’t think BJ is hurt. It’s just about saving face. Both JP and Cito want him to either retool in the minors or start throwing in some games when the Jays are up 6 or 7 runs. They don’t want it to look like they are demoting him.

BJ Ryan is scheduled to see a specialist the beginning of next week . It makes you wonder if he came back too early from surgery and is now paying for it .

162,

I don’t think they can put a player on the DL unless there is a physical reason otherwise Yanks would have put Wang on . Yanks sent him to pitch in the minors to regain his confidence and his control .

I think we will know by the end of May whether we have a potential or pretender, since the schedule is tough between now and then, with the normally dreaded west coast wing in LA and Oakland and multiple games with NY and Boston.

If they can get to 12 games over .500 by the end of May from 7 now, we might see some significant baseball in late September.

The thing this team seems to have, which is different than any team since our glory days, is a killer instinct. They don’t give up even when they’re a long ways ahead and they are beating the teams they should be beating. This hasn’t happened for quite some time.

Love the name 162wins.
We have to fare well against the Rays this year and that will show me that the Jays will have a chance to make it. The Rays have been a thorn in our side for a few years now.

As for BJ i think Kate is right he may have come back to soon and it could be scar tissue.

You got to love that bullpen.
One of the bullpen pitchers that has turned around is Camp since the Jays picked him up, I used to love it when he pitched against us because i knew we were going to score some runs.lol.

Camp is another pitcher that can thank Brad Arnsberg for his success. He wasn’t much before he got to the Jays, but his first Spring with us, he learned to throw another pitch (cutter? changeup?), I forget, but he has been lights out ever since.

Actually, it was a sinker, but I think Camp learnt it on his own, not to take anything away from Arnsberg. The two guys Arnsberg has really changed are Romero and Richmond. Arnsberg picked up the fact Richmond didn’t have an out pitch for lefties nor a changeup. Now, the same pitch, does both.

FYI, For Camp, it was the change up that he worked on in the off season, but Arnsberg took an interest and it paid off. Camp had always been a sinkerballer. Before he came to the Jays he was abused by the DRays. As I recall, he finished second in the AL for games played. That can burn out an arm fast. The Jays really know how to use their players smartly. I live in St. Pete during the winter/spring and one has to follow the Rays in the paper!!! A few years ago Camp was always in the news because he played with a sad heart as his new wife almost died from a pregnancy and was sick for a long while. Then his Mum died suddenly. Kudos to JP for picking him up and giving him a second chance. Go Jays!!!

wannawinit
It might be accurate that Arnsberg also taught Camp the changeup, I’m not sure. What I do remember though is an interview with Arnsberg where he talked abut Camp’s sinker-not sinking and that he had him change his grip to make it effective again.
When we first signed him, I wasn’t all that high on the guy because we used to pulverize him when he pitched against us.
But whatever Arnsberg did had impact and he’s ended up being a very nice addition to our pen.

So I think we can safely add Camp to the list of Arnsberg refits, along with Burnett, Romero, Richmond, et.al. Has anybody noticed that League hasn’t thrown a lot of pitches over about 93-94, at least that I noticed? I don’t know if his stuff has more movement than it did at 100mph, but his control is getting a lot better, and he is very effective right now. That’s Arnsberg too. Take a little off, get more movement, throw strikes, and mix up your pitch selection. Maybe his arm will stay attached to his shoulder a bit longer too. We’re putting together another Arnie’s Army here.

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.